quick links

DALARADIA -Kingdom of the Cruthin

by DR. IAN ADAMSON

As the people of Northern Ireland take their first tentative steps on the road to a new pluralist society and endeavour to come to terms with the divisions created during the last few hundred years of their history, it is timely to remind them that they have another, more ancient legacy - a shared historical and cultural inheritance of which most of them are largely unaware.
Among the oldest named population groups of Ireland were the Cruthin, a pre-Celtic people dominant in large parts of ancient Ulster. Their most powerful dynasty were the Dal nAraidi, whose territory became known as Dalaradia, and whose impact upon Ulster’s history and culture is detailed in this book.
The story of Dalaradia is not confined to its political aspects, but embraces a quite remarkable literary tradition. The Ulster Tales’, ‘The Voyage of Bran’, The Battle of Magh Rath, and ‘Sweeny’s Frenzy’, helped establish Ulster’s pre-eminent role in the birth of Irish literature, one in which Dalaradia played a dominant part.
Nor was Dalaradia’s legacy confined to these shores. Not only was there a highly productive relationship with nearby Scotland, but when Columbanus set forth from Bangor on his great missionary travels he was embarking upon a journey which was to have profound significance for the rebirth of European civilisation.
Most importantly, however, the story of Dalaradia offers us hope that the people of present-day Northern Ireland could one day cease to view their differing aspirations of Britishness and lrishness as a constant source of conflict and division,and begin to celebrate them as proof of their diverse but shared inheritance, one which links together all the peoples of these islands.